The remarkable Kristin Chenoweth sings in Boston, and on TV, April 30

Thursday

Apr 20, 2017 at 4:05 PM

By R. Scott Reedy, Correspondent

Kristin Chenoweth has advice for anyone trying to decide between seeing her in concert at Boston’s Symphony Hall on April 30, or staying home to watch her new television series, “American Gods,” which premieres that same night on Starz.

“People should hit me up at Symphony Hall and then again on TV. My concert is at 7 p.m. and I think the series premiere is being broadcast twice that night, at 8 and then 10, so it will be a Kristin Chenoweth night all around,” explained the Tony and Emmy award winner with her customary good humor by telephone from her home in New York recently.

And an evening that will mark the performer’s Celebrity Series debut as part of her current concert tour in support of her sixth solo album, “The Art of Elegance,” released in September 2016 on Concord Records, debuting at No. 36 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the Billboard Current and Traditional Jazz charts. Produced by Steve Tyrell, the album features classics from the Great American Songbook.

“It’s so funny, I like to switch up the songs. I do ‘I’m a Fool to Want You’ or ‘Smile,’ usually ‘Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart,’ and often ‘A House Is Not a Home.’ I like the show to be different every night,” say the classically trained coloratura soprano with a three-octave range.

“I may debut ‘You’re a Damn Liar’ by Chely Wright. It’s a great song about being jilted and hurt, not just in love, but also in life. Chely is a Christian who struggled with her sexual identity. She topped the charts as a country singer, but when she came out as a lesbian, it took a toll on her career.”

Chenoweth’s own career took off when she made her Broadway debut 20 years ago in Kander and Ebb’s “Steel Pier.” Two years later, she won a Tony Award playing Sally in “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” Since then, the vocal powerhouse has had starring roles in “The Apple Tree,” “Promises, Promises,” and “On the Twentieth Century.”

While she’s now busy with concerts and television – the Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, native not only has the new Starz series, but also a role in the CBS pilot “Perfect Citizen,” a legal drama set in Boston – Chenoweth says she will always circle back to the New York stage.

“I’ll keep coming back to Broadway as long as they’ll have me. It’s my home. I think for me, what worked about ‘The Apple Tree,’ ‘Promises, Promises,’ and ‘On the Twentieth Century’ was that they were revivals, but of seldom-done shows. That made them interesting. Next time, however, I’d like to do a new show. And I want it to be the best production possible.”

With those goals in mind, Chenoweth has been eyeing two projects – one about the late evangelist, Christian singer, and television personality, Tammy Faye Baker, and another, a musical stage version of the 1991 film comedy, “Soapdish,” in which she would play a mature soap opera star.

“Tammy Faye was a beloved but very tragic figure. She was very ahead on AIDS and on loving everyone as they are, but she struggled with her own demons, too, and had to visit the Betty Ford Clinic. I’m working with Henry Krieger (‘Dreamgirls’) and David Yazbek (‘The Full Monty’) who are wonderfully talented. And I think ‘Soapdish’ could be great fun. I’d play the Sally Field role in that one.”

While those stage projects are in development, Chenoweth, 48, is enjoying her reunion with television producer Bryan Fuller on “American Gods,” the series based on the novel of the same name by Neil Gaiman. Fuller created and co-executive produced the short-lived ABC series “Pushing Daisies,” for which Chenoweth won a 2009 Emmy Award as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy series playing waitress Olive Snook.

The new series focuses on an imprisoned man who is given early release when his wife is killed and is offered a job by a man named Wednesday who is actually the god Odin. Wednesday is wending his way across America, recruiting all the old gods that long ago integrated themselves into American life, to confront the new gods, including Media and Technology, who are growing stronger each day.

“My character, Easter, is a little pissed that Jesus has come and taken her holiday. Easter is a goddess of old and now she has to deal with the new gods. Everyone is at war fighting for their place in this world. It’s in the realm of ‘Pushing Daisies,’ and also ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Hannibal.’ It is science-fiction and it’s everything else, too. It’s great to be working with Bryan again,” says Chenoweth who previously had recurring roles on TV’s “The West Wing” and “Glee.”

And while she also appeared in more than 20 feature films, Chenoweth – who has a master’s degree in Opera Performance from Oklahoma City University – understands that audiences may always connect her with “Wicked,” the mega-hit musical about the early lives of the witches from “The Wizard of Oz,” in which she was Tony-nominated for originating the role of Glinda the Good Witch.

“That was 14 years ago, but when I show up anywhere people still want me to sing ‘Popular.’ I don’t know that I have always felt this way, but I’m OK with that now. I will never take ‘Wicked’ for granted,” says the in-demand entertainer, who’s been known to tousle her perfectly coiffed blonde locks when dedicating the song that humorously extols the virtues of beauty and popularity to a certain New York businessman-turned-U.S. president.

“What’s been interesting is how divided audiences are after I mention Donald Trump. Half the audience cheers and the other half sits on its hands. I always tell them, ‘That’s where we’re at, y’all, and we won’t get anywhere that way.’ I’m changing it up these days, though, and Trump’s been replaced. I’ll be having fun with someone else in Boston.”